


Magnificent Desolation

by ArchangelUnmei



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Moon, NASA, Outer Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-05 23:44:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArchangelUnmei/pseuds/ArchangelUnmei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Alfred gets tired of everything, there's one place he can go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magnificent Desolation

**Author's Note:**

> This is what I get for watching the _When We Left Earth_ documentaries late at night. ;;;
> 
> My dad's an aerospace engineer and we're both total space geeks, so this is dedicated to him. He's told me stories of the stars and space travel all my life, and passed on his fascination to me.

When Alfred gets tired of the meetings, the politics, the noise and the bustle and the paperwork, when he gets tired of the whining and the filibusters and the petty arguments, when he gets tired of his boss and all his minions, there is one place he can go.

He's a Nation, he's _America_ , and he can go wherever he wants on land that is his. He once wandered through Fort Knox and waved at the security cameras, just because he could. For all he looks human, he isn't, and there's no power that exists that can stop him from being what he is. His land is part of that. His land is part of _him_. 

He can remember when he was very small, before Europe even knew his land existed. He remembers laying in the arms of someone whose face he can't quite recall and looking up at the sky. His skin and hair were darker then, but he was still himself, still young and new and curious about the world around him. He still remembers the stories his mother told him, that the sun was the eye of a great cat, the moon its other eye, keeping watch over both day and night. He always looked on the moon with wonder and longing, long before he knew to call himself 'Alfred'. 

And now. When he wants to get away, he closes his eyes, opens his hands, breathes deep breaths and remembers 1969. A flag still flies, _his_ flag still flies, and it's not exactly easy but it's not really hard either, to will himself to stand beside it. 

This land wasn't exactly _claimed_ , but twelve of his boys walked here, his and no one else's, and that makes it his enough that he can come. 

He remembers them, them and all the thousands of support staff behind them, they that dreamed of reaching beyond the earth. The Nations hadn't expected that. Alfred remembers the excitement, the heated debates over whether or not Apollo 11 would succeed. He remembers Russia not as a cruel enemy but a determined rival, giving him cool little smiles across crowded rooms. 

Alfred always stayed out of the arguments though, he was too busy. He spent more time in Florida than Washington those years, ignoring requests and then all out orders from his boss to come home. Alfred had always been fascinated by the stars, the sky, and now his boys, _his boys_ were flying. 

And so when Alfred feels stressed out, anxious, pulled in a million different directions, he comes to the moon and stares at the earth and feels everything else slip away. 

The earth is so small, from here. He can hold up his hand and cover the whole world with his thumb. Everything he knows, everything he always thought was so powerful, everything is contained on that tiny, fragile world. China's ancient empire, England's mighty ships, Canada's vast forests and Russia's frozen fields, and all the fights and wars they've had over the centuries, all of them seem insignificant from where Alfred stands. 

And rather than making him feel prideful, it humbles him. He had nothing to do with this. He does feel pride, yes, but in his boys, in NASA for achieving something that for so long Nations had considered impossible. Human drive is amazing, they can accomplish so much when they put their minds to it. 

And here, Alfred feels like himself. Can think for himself, instead of having to think of what's best. It's silent on the moon, silent and peaceful as he gazes down at the beauty of the whole world. Here, standing outside of everything he's ever known, in a place no one else can touch for now, here he feels like he can finally begin to see the whole picture. 

The moon isn't a watchful eye like his long ago mother told him, but Alfred sees it as something like a guardian anyway. At least for him, the moon makes him remember that for all a Nation's greatness, he's nothing without his people. And there's no squabble so big it can't be overcome. 

Someday, Alfred wants to bring Ivan here. He'd love for everyone to be able to come, of course, but he remembers the look in Ivan's eyes when Alfred told him that his boys had made it and returned. Ivan had looked so sad, and in that moment Alfred understood that for Ivan, the space race hadn't been political, it had been personal, just like for Alfred himself. 

So someday Alfred plans to bring Ivan here, show him the tiny marble of their whole world. "That's us," he'll say. "And this is where they've brought us." 

But for now that can't happen. For now only Alfred's flag flies here, only Alfred's boys have touched this place. So Alfred kicks back in an old, old Rover, props up his feet and watches the earth rise.


End file.
